The point of writing SEO optimised content is to write content that is genuinely useful to the user. Google ranks content that it deems the most useful and relevant to users’ search queries.
Meta
I generally follow the rule of ‘Primary Keyword Target | Brand Name’ to frontload your primary keyword focus point, then your meta description wants to look like a shop window, for example:
“Shop commercial refrigerated display cabinets at XXX, perfect for showcasing and preserving perishable goods in any professional food service space.”
As a general rule, page titles should be 50-60 characters, and meta descriptions 150-160 characters, but I wouldn’t obsess over these guidelines. You’re better off writing for purpose than for strict character limits.
Make sure each page has a unique, well-targeted page title and meta description. Google may opt to provide its own meta description, but not your meta title (so get that part right).
Search Intent
One of the most important things to consider when writing SEO content is search intent.
Search intent is a user’s main goal when they enter a query into a search engine, which could be to find information about a specific topic, to visit a particular webpage, or to make a purchase.
Types of search intent:
Informational: The user wants to learn about something
Navigational: The user is trying to find a specific page or website
Commercial: The user is researching options before making a purchase
Transactional: The user wants to take an action, like completing a purchase
When considering intent, you should think about the kind of page the user would want to land on:
- Blog posts
- Product pages
- Category pages
- Landing pages
- Tools
If you were searching for ‘best commercial fridges’, you’d likely want to land on a blog page with informative, perhaps comparative content, or in a ‘top ten’ listicle format.
If you were searching ‘buy commercial fridges online’, you wouldn’t benefit from a page of lengthy content; you’re looking to make a purchase. These pages should focus on a smooth buying process; make it easy to purchase, and ensure high-quality product information.
YMYL & EEAT
YMYL (Your Money Your Life): a term used by Google to categorise web pages that might potentially impact a person’s happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. These pages are held to a higher standard due to the potential harm that inaccurate or misleading information could cause.
This is where EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness & Trustworthiness) comes in, a framework that Google uses to assess the quality of content and websites. It’s important for achieving higher rankings in search results, especially for topics related to YMYL.
Internal / External Linking
Internal and external links are crucial for SEO because they enhance website navigation, improve user experience and boost a site’s authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines.
- Internal links help users and search engines navigate a website and build topical authority.
- External links provide valuable context and demonstrate expertise (in the context of EEAT).
Competitors
In SEO, competitors are websites that rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs) for the same keywords as your target page. They compete with you for visibility and organic traffic from search engines.
These competitors might not always be your direct business rivals, but rather any website that appears in the search results when users search for terms relevant to your content.
Keywords
Keywords are search queries that users are inputting into Google. We use them to inform our content and determine search intent. We want to avoid ‘keyword stuffing’ and only use them naturally in the content we write.
Search engines are able to understand semantics now, so the process is a little more nuanced.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content negatively impacts SEO because it confuses search engines. If you have two very similar pages ranking for the same keywords, Google will struggle to determine which page to prioritise, potentially favouring a less important page, or neither at all.
This is referred to as ‘cannibalisation’, which refers to a situation where multiple pages on a website target the same or very similar keywords, causing them to compete against each other in the search engine results page (SERP).
This is why it’s important to have clearly targeted pages and to link between them to show their relationship.
Formatting
SEO formatting refers to structuring and presenting website content in a way that helps search engines understand it, ultimately improving its visibility and ranking in search results.
Arranged content helps Google and users understand the content. In HTML, <h1>, <h2>, and <h3> tags are used to define the structure and hierarchy of headings on a webpage. They help organise content and make it easier for both users and search engines to understand the page’s structure and content.
Here’s a breakdown of their roles:
H1: The main heading or title of the page. It’s the most important heading and should be used once per page to summarise the main topic.
H2: Subheadings that divide the content into sections, supporting the main <h1> heading.
H3: Used for subheadings under <h2> headings, providing further granularity and structure. Often listicle or bullet points.
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Effective SEO content writing is ultimately about clarity, purpose and user value. When you focus on answering real questions, aligning with intent and presenting information in a way that’s easy to understand and navigate, search performance naturally follows.